The Phoenix
The Phoenix are an active team in the Midwest Combat Chess League. The are the newest team in the league, formed by the management of the now defunct Cavaliers in 2014. History 2014 Seeking distance from a checkered history and to bring in new blood, General Manager Jeff Rosen disbanded his Cavaliers to form an entirely new team tentatively named The Badgers. His first step was to coax Luis Rosa (former King of the UCCC Blackguards and widely considered to be the best King in the UCCC's history) out of retirement to be the cornerstone around which his new team would be built. The two set about attempting to build their team from the current Free Agency pool. Then opporunity struck when The Corsairs released their champion king Chris Marchand, resulting in the mass exodus of fighters known as The 2014 Corsair Mutiny. Capitalizing on the sudden access to almost a full team veteran players, The Phoenix were able to acquire six members of the 2013 Championship team: Rachel Bigelow, Jon Bigelow, Johanna Gorman-Baer, Andrew Gullikson, Jena Young, and Eric Cohen. In light of the nature of the team's formation a new (and much better) name was sttled on: The Phoenix. The Phoenix performed beyond expectations in their inagural season. King Luis Rosa proved to be every bit as potent as promised, and the veteran champs mixed well with the many new rising stars, creating a cohesive unit that was nigh unstoppable. Riding into the final match of the regular season with six wins, they seemed poised to be one of the few teams to finish with a perfect record. The exact nature of events remains disputed, but it is safe to say that the team saw this final match as very low stakes, and suffered their only loss to the deflated and largely irrelevant new Corsair team, ending 6-1. Despite the sloppy fighting seen in their final regular season match, The Phoenix were back in form during the semifinals, easily defeating The Templars in an extremely one-sided match. Rosa has the 2014 Championship match all but won against The Dragons, when King David P. Schneider invoked a little known rule, King's Perogative, to fight his way clear of a Check Mate by Steffi O'Brien and David Elwyn. Following the spectacular 2-on-1 fight, The Dragons would rally to take the match. 2015 During the off season, Luis Rosa unexpectedly announced that he would not be returning as King of The Phoenix for 2015. There have been rumors of issues with gambling, but nothing was ever substantiated. As a result of Rosa's departure, some of The Phoenix's top tier players left with him. Jena Young was tapped to replace Rosa as King. The Phoenix proved to be a much more chaotic force under Young's leadership on the board. While they would struggle to find success, The Phoenix quickly became known for putting on a good show for the audience. Notable Members Current: Jena Young (2014-) Johanna Gorman-Baer (2014-) David Elwyn (2014-) Andrew Gullikson (2014-) Eric Cohen (2014-) Darwin Hull (2014, 2016-) John Daniel (2015-) Past: Luis Rosa (2014) Rachel Bigelow (2014) Jon Bigelow (2014) Category:Teams